Health and Nutrition: Saint Patrick's Day

Members of TEAM avoided leprechauns while stealing from their pots in the downstairs gym of Wilson Elementary School on Saint Patrick's Day.

The after school club played the holiday-themed game as its health and nutrition event, which takes place on Mondays.

A pot of gold

Everyone was divided into four teams with three people designated as leprechauns. Hula hoops were placed in the center of the gym -- designated as the leprechauns' pots. Teams gathered in each corner. When music played, students stole markers -- which represented the gold -- from the center hoops and took them back to their corner. Whichever team had the most markers in its hula hoop by the time the music stopped won.

The ones kneeling down are strategically positioning
 themselves to take a marker and run away before a leprechaun catches them.

 If a leprechaun touched someone who took a marker, that person was required to put it back in the hoop and go back to his/her team's corner before being able to play again.

Cesar Bautista, a leprechaun, is sitting on his pot.
He will not let anyone take his gold.

After each round, Kayla Dinsdale, TEAM's site coordinator who planned the game, would alter the rules, sometimes asking for suggestions on which new rules to use. These included the amount of leprechauns in the round as well as the amount of players that could steal at one time. During the final round, students could even steal from other teams' hula hoops.

"It was intense, honestly," said Phoebe Toledo, a high school student who attends TEAM regularly. "It was just all over the place and the rules kept changing and it was ridiculously fun."

According to Toledo, Monday's health and nutrition games are often played with rule changes to explore different ways of playing them, to learn creativity and practice adaptability.

TEAM Opens New Site Focused on Academics

TEAM has opened a new site at Logan High School (LHS), where students will have one hour dedicated to homework rather than thirty minutes. For students needing extra help with their homework, ESL students, and those with an ACT test date in the near future, this may be a better choice for them.

TEAM members at Wilson Elementary doing
homework while Kayla Dinsdale
 writes on the whiteboard

Wilson Elementary School is still open for those who will benefit most from the balance of academic tutoring, 4H enhancement and service.

According to Kayla Dinsdale, TEAM's site coordinator, the after-school club opened LHS primarily for students who need extra help with doing homework, preparing for ACTs, filling out applications, receiving scholarships, and anything else related to academics. Much of what TEAM does at Wilson are still done at LHS, but the time allotted for the enhancement activities like 4-H and service is shorter so that the focus is more on school work and academic tutoring.

Logan High School computer lab
 where TEAM members do homework

Some students also attend Logan High School out of convenience. Some students have not been able to attend TEAM due to their inability or the inconvenience of getting to Wilson.

"This is where I go to school, and it's easier to get here," said Erick Carrillo, a high school sophomore who attends TEAM at LHS. "I'm already here."

Cesar Bautista standing in front of the whiteboard
 at Wilson Elementary School

Those who want to go to Wilson do it for the service experience, the opportunity to mentor younger students, and the scholarship opportunity. Every day, thirty minutes are set aside for members to mentor elementary students attending after-school clubs. In doing so they are earning $5/day towards a scholarship that can be used for post secondary education after they graduate from high school. In addition, the Wilson site has a very heavy focus on youth leadership development through service. Students are provided many opportunities to serve their peers as leaders of the various 4-H clubs and service projects.

"It's a good experience," said Cesar Bautista, a high school junior who attends TEAM at Wilson. "It helps you learn how to work with kids, it's pretty fun, and it gives you a good feeling."

Here are the scheduling specifics and a short summary of each site:

Logan High Site  2:45-5:00PM 

2:45-3:00 Snack

3:00-3:15 TEAM building

3:15-4:15 Academic Time

4:15-4:40 4H Topic 

4:40-5:00 Service

TEAM Logan High Site is for students that have a difficult time making it over to Wilson Elementary AND/OR they need additional support in academics/ACT/Scholarships/Applications. This site has all the same components as the Wilson Site but they are condensed so that we can have additional time on homework etc. This site is also more of a one-to-one mentoring set up. We have the USU Business Department Huntsman Scholars helping us this semester as well as a group from a management class at USU, so we are able to provide individualized tutoring for every student.

Wilson Elementary Site  3:00-5:30PM

3:00-3:15  Snack

3:15-3:30  TEAM Building 

3:30-4:00  4H Topics 

4:00-4:30  After School Club kids Clubs Time (Mentoring)

4:30-5:00  Academics

5:00-5:30  Service

The Wilson Site is for students that would like a balance of the key TEAM components (academic tutoring, 4-H clubs and service) and would like additional leadership skills, more service (we do .5 hr service every day and serve the Wilson after-school club for .5 hr daily), and the $5 scholarship to any college/university of their choice per day- up to $20 per week.

Youth Leadership Summit 2014!

On February 28^th, 2014, the Cache Valley Volunteer Center sponsored a Youth Leadership Summit. This event was held on the Utah State University campus and was designed to teach high school students a variety of leadership skills with an emphasis on the fact that all of the youth can become leaders and get involved in service in their community.

Students from all three local high schools were invited: Mountain Crest, Skyview, and Logan High School. There were 181 students who pre-registered for the event. The event consisted of a wide variety of workshops, great speakers, and an opportunity to participate in multiple service projects.

The day started with a meet and greet that the students participated in while waiting for others to arrive and before they split into groups. A light breakfast was also served, and the youth got to know each other by playing a game where the students would throw a beach ball with questions written on it to each other. When a student caught the ball they would answer a question about themselves from the ball.

Students listening to their classmate answer a question about themselves

After the meet and greet, the students were split into groups for a couple of workshops focused on key leadership qualities the youth need to develop, and also showed that anyone can be a leader.

Workshop 1: Who/What is a Leader?

This activity involved making a "board of directors" of things that were leaders and helped guide people in their lives. Allowed to pick real people, fictional people, or animals, the students were able to come up with a wide variety of role models and leaders in their life. Multiple people picked their pets, but the most common had to be Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter!

Group of Students showing their own Board of Directors

Workshop 2: Problem Solving as a Leader

When people encounter a problem, someone needs to take charge and solve the problem they have encountered. Sometimes they need to work together or bend the rules in order to make a decision and sometimes they don't have much time to make the decision. The second workshop students participated in was a game called "Musical Paper Bags". This game involved students having to all be touching a bag with their foot. They had to move around while music was playing and once time was up they all had 3 seconds to be touching the bags. It was easy at first because of all of the paper bags but after every round, more and more bags were taken away. Students started to get crafty by putting their feet in the bags to make more room, or ripping the bag up into smaller pieces so more people could fit their feet on it.

Working together to get their feet on the bags caused trouble and some people even tried to think about themselves instead of as a team.

Workshop 3: Communication is more than Words

Leaders do not just need to talk, sometimes they need to communicate by actions, signs, or writing. Leaders are not always around to help others and need to be able to communicate besides just talking. That is why for the final workshop the students did a silent line up. The object of this activity is to get people in a certain order (alphabetically, youngest to oldest, etc.) without leaving the tape and without talking. They had to work together to move past each other. Certain groups had difficulty because multiple leaders emerged but didn't communicate with each other. Others didn't specify what their age or name was correctly so they didn't end up in the right spot. Some groups wanted to do different line up challenges and had to line up alphabetically by their favorite animal! 

This group used hand signals to communicate their middle names

This group used animal signs to line up by their favorite animal

Following the workshops the students had a wonderful experience of listening to the newly elected mayor of Logan City, Mayor Craig Peterson. He spoke to them about how people who had no connections, no power, and who were maybe even unheard of rise up and become amazing leaders. He explained to them how leadership isn't something you are born with; it's a set of skills you can develop and anyone can become a leader if they are willing to put forth the effort. 

Timothy McFall presenting Craig Peterson with a book about service titled "Changing the World"
The book was signed by the students, thanking him for speaking to us.

This event was sponsored by the Cache Valley Volunteer Center in support of their newly forming YOUth Advisory Council. The YOUth Advisory Council was designed to get students involved in service, to provide opportunities for networking and collaboration, to provide resources to youth service groups throughout the valley, and to help the schools work together to better the community

Next came lunch- pizza, salad, and lots of goodies!

  

Following lunch the students participated in several different service projects and learned how they can get more involved on campus and help certain groups on campus.

   

Students wrote to people serving in the military
"Letters to Soldiers" is a project to help those who serve know that
 they are loved and important to those who don't even know them.


Students also wrote to the elderly and made cards to be delivered to the local assisted living center.
This project sponsored by Generations United,  MetLife Foundation and AARP's MentorUp! initiative. 

Another service project involved having the students make safe driving posters encouraging drivers to follow the rules of the road, not drink and drive, nor use their phones while driving and just be courteous to others on the road. This project went along with a year-long YOUth in the Driver's Seat initiative, sponsored by State Farm and Youth Service America (YSA). It also provided an excellent kick-off event for the ActOutLoud/AllState Foundation Safe Driving rallies that each of the high schools will be planning and hosting in April.

 

Another favorite service project was a collaboration with Aggie Bikes. Students learned proper bike safety and basic bike mechanic tips. They were also taught how they can help Aggie Blue Bikes to support their future colleagues and classmates who attend USU.

Students also had an opportunity to participate in two service presentations:
Nicole Crow from Options for Independence talked to the youth about how to involve youth with disabilities and appropriate vocabulary to use when referring to persons with disabilities.

Also, Valeria, one of the TEAM Mentoring youth leaders, reported on her recent humanitarian trip to Samoa.
She helped the other students learn how they can get involved in similar travel opportunities through volunteer work.

    

This event was a great success and we are thankful for all the help we received!

Many thanks to Service for Peace (www.serviceforpeace.org) and the Commission on Civic and Character Education for funding this event. Without them it would not have been possible. 

Also we want like to thank Generations United, MetLife Foundation, MentorUp!, Aggie Blue Bikes, Youth Service America, and State Farm for providing us with service projects for the students to do. 

A huge Thank You to the Cache Food Pantry for donating breakfast and goodies to go with lunch.

Thank you to Mayor Peterson for speaking with the students and most importantly we would like to thank the students and leaders who came to the event to learn how to be a leader and how they can help serve in the community. Without these people, the world would not become a better place!

If you would like more information about getting involved with the Cache Valley Volunteer Center's YOUth Advisory Council you can email us at info@cachevolunteercenter.org or CLICK HERE to fill out the application form.

Huntsman Scholars to help mentor TEAM students

Michael Peine, a sophomore marketing major in the Huntsman Scholar Program, said he looks forward to helping TEAM members gain confidence that they can attend college. This semester, students in the Huntsman Scholar Program, an honors program at Utah State University, are helping TEAM with mentoring. Peine said the Huntsman Scholars will strive for a one-on-one connection with high school students at TEAM and help them prepare for college.

Adam Stewart, one of the group's leaders said, "The Huntsman Scholars Program is centered around mentoring, so helping TEAM is a great way to extend our resources to the community."

Andrew Izatt, another leader, added, "It is wonderful to see our group come together behind a cause and strengthen our community."

Brandon Estoque, a junior marketing major in the program, said the ability to mentor is an important skill for anyone to have, and he looks forward to being able to have a positive impact on others. 

“You get so busy with school and work and trying to keep on top of everything that it’s really nice having something that you’re impacting other people,” Estoque said. “It’s not about you.”

Aniko Pearson is impressed with the excitement and commitment of the TEAM students. She said, "I think it's awesome that these kids are so motivated to participate in the program outside of school."

According to Peine, every semester the scholars focus on a different service project. Sometimes their service is focused on other countries, and other times they are more local. This year, they decided it would be the latter.

“We decided this one would have a lot of impact,” Peine said. Because of their involvement with TEAM, the program has already been able to open a new site that will remain at Logan High and have a heavier focus on academic tutoring. This new site will allow the TEAM Mentoring program to serve 3 specific groups of students whose needs we have not been able to meet up to this point:

• Students who have a difficult time getting to Wilson Elementary,
• Students who need to spend a little more time with the academic tutoring and less time with the enhancement academics like- teambuilding, 4-H and service, and
• Students who have language barriers and special language needs that will really benefit from the one-to-one mentoring.

In addition to mentoring, some of the Huntsman Scholars are helping with other projects to strengthen the program including assisting with the social media campaign, doing the monthly newsletter, writing press releases and other marketing tasks.

"This is a great opportunity to connect with new people and reach out to other organizations within Cache Valley," Sadie Crabb adds.

The Huntsman Scholar Program has already had a tremendously positive impact on TEAM Mentoring and there are plans for many more good things to happen throughout the semester!

THANK YOU, Huntsman Scholars!  

You are making a positive difference!!

The Huntsman Scholar Program is designed to give students academic, leadership and service opportunities that are not typically offered to undergraduates. More details about what they do can be found on this video found on their website, http://huntsman.usu.edu/scholars/: